againtake hisplace as an officer on the deck of a warship. He was saved in spite of himself. When he sank into an exhausted sleep he was chloroformed, the revolver taken away,and the operation performed. Thanks to a vigorous constitution he recovered, though he was nearly a year on the sick list. Then, to his delight, he was told that in recognition of his valour he would be kept on the active list, and he has learned to make such good use of an artificial limb, that only those who know his record are aware that ''Fighting Bob" is a one-legged man. The weak point of the United States naval organisationis that no provision had been made for any reserveof officers and men;and it had been pointedout by some of the keenest officers of the American navy, that in their anxiety to produce a new navy rapidly the United States were building ships more quickly than they were providing officers and crews to manthem.

The only naval reserve in the United States was, in fact, a force that could hardly be ex-COMMODORE SCHT.EY.

pected to add much to the strength of the fighting navy. In many of the States in the last few years a naval militia had been established, very much on the lines of the now disbanded British naval artillery volunteers. In New York and some of the other greatcities on the coast, the naval militia included a number of yachtsmen and boatmen who had some experience of the sea,but there was also a naval militia in some of the inlandStates, composed of men who for the most part had neverseen a warship. On the outbreak of the war this force was mobilised for coast defence. To have sent it to the sea-going fleets would have been a piece of rashness,but useful work was found for it in the manning of the harbour defence ships and the " mosquito fleet" of small armed steamers that scouted along the Atlantic seaboard. Intheseships the volunteergunners were able to complete their training,and at the same time set free a number of regular bluejackets for service with Sampson andSchley'ssquadrons.

244 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.